「開発社会学」の研究系譜とアプローチ

――国内外の社会学における蓄積にもとづいて

抄録

The sociology of development in Japan is an underexplored, if not undervalued, field of study. Although there has been a call for greater engagement by sociologists in development studies, a majority of them remain preoccupied with issues that revolve around ‘modernity’ in the global North. However, their general lack of interest in development is hardly tenable, given that development aid projects have not only triggered modernisation but reshaped the social life of citizens in the global South over the past decades. Some of their impacts are reminiscent of the changes that Japanese sociologists used to study in the course of modernisation in post-war Japan.

It is not the provincialism of Japanese sociologists alone that has hindered the growth of the sociology of development. The lack of dialogue between sociologists and other social scientists within development studies is equally responsible for it. In lieu of sociologists, some keen non-sociologists, notably development economists and planning studies scholars, have advanced the quasi-sociological research of development. However, their non-expert treatment of the sociological literature has somewhat shaped the skewed image of the sociology of development in the circle of development studies scholars. It is not uncommon to find that they conflate sociological works with anthropological ones. Some even employ sociological concepts as fillers to explain what constitutes the social in development projects.

Against this backdrop, this article attempts to determine the sociological approaches to development in a way that is capable of applying sociological frameworks to empirical analysis of development processes. In so doing, it gives an overview of seminal works in the sociology of development outside Japan. It then seeks to establish the relevance of empirical works on regional development in Japan done by ‘non-development’ sociologists to development studies. These include works in sub-disciplines of sociology such as rural sociology, urban sociology, regional and community studies, and the sociology of environment, all of which have traced the development paths of post-war Japan and reflect the elements of Japan as a latecomer of capitalist development.

By this token, the article tries to build a sociological framework of development which is informed by the rich tradition of Japanese sociology and that can be replicated to empirical studies in the global South, particularly countries that are undergoing modernisation apace.